Editorial Review:

Album Description:
Subtitled - B-sides & Rarities 1978-2001 - The Fiction Years. First-ever collection of hard-to-find gems in a career-spanning four-disc remastered set. As The Cure nears its third decade at the forefront of pop culture, Universal, Rhino & Fiction/Elektra are celebrating the band's remarkable career with this collection. 70 tracks compiled by Robert Smith, 25 on CD for the first time & 10 tracks previously unreleased. Includes 76-page booklet featuring rare & previously unseen photographs & a complete Fiction discography. Packaged in long-digibook format. 2004.

Amazon.com:
A testament to the Cure’s explosive creativity, Join the Dots is also an ode to the band’s remarkable consistency. Spanning the group’s entire career, it’ll keep fans happily burrowing away for hours; days, even. Disc 1 concentrates on Robert Smith’s early growth spurts, when his jerky goth-pop blossomed with depth and savvy. Disc 2 recycles some of Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me’s motifs (there’s a touch of 'A Thousand Hours' in 'Breath,' for instance), and pays tribute to their early-90s Mixed Up Madchester phase with 'Harold and Joe.' Elsewhere, there are covers of 'Young Americans,' Depeche Mode’s 'World in My Eyes,' 'Purple Haze,' and three versions of the Doors’ 'Hello I Love You,' as well as more recent material like an acoustic version of 'Maybe Someday' from 2000’s Bloodflowers. The handsome packaging features a complete career retrospective partially narrated by Smith himself. As a capstone to a brilliant career, Dots is a sublime walk down memory lane for tortured hearts and melancholy moods. --Matthew Cooke









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Disc 1:

1. 10:15 Saturday Night
2. Plastic Passion
3. Pillbox Tales
4. Do the Hansa
5. I'm Cold
6. Another Journey by Train
7. DeScent
8. Splintered in Her Head
9. Lament (Flexipop Version)
10. Just One Kiss
11. The Dream
12. The Upstairs Room
13. Lament
14. Speak My Language
15. Mr Pink Eyes
16. Happy the Man
17. Throw Your Foot
18. New Day
19. The Exploding Boy
20. A Few Hours After This...
21. A Man Inside My Mouth
22. Stop Dead

Disc 2:

1. A Japanese Dream
2. Breathe
3. A Chain of Flowers
4. Snow in Summer
5. Sugar Girl
6. Icing Sugar (Weird Remix)
7. Hey You!!! (Kevorkian 12' Remix)
8. How Beautiful You Are (Clearmountain 7' Remix)
9. To the Sky
10. Babble
11. Out of Mind
12. 2 Late
13. Fear of Ghosts
14. Hello I Love You (Psychedelic Version)
15. Hello I Love You
16. Hello I Love You (10sec Version)
17. Harold and Joe
18. Just Like Heaven ('Chuck' Remix)

Disc 3:

1. This Twilight Garden
2. Play
3. Halo
4. Scared as You
5. The Big Hand
6. A Foolish Arrangement
7. Doing the Unstuck (Saunders 12' Remix)
8. Purple Haze (Virgin Radio Version)
9. Purple Haze
10. Burn
11. Young Americans
12. Dredd Song
13. It Used to Be ME
14. Ocean
15. Adonais

Disc 4:

1. Home
2. Waiting
3. A Pink Dream
4. This Is a Lie (Palmer Remix)
5. Wrong Number (Smith Remix)
6. More Than This
7. World in My Eyes
8. Possession
9. Out of This World (Oakenfold Remix)
10. Maybe Someday (Hedges Remix)
11. Coming Up
12. Signal to Noise (Acoustic Version)
13. Signal to Noise
14. Just Say Yes (Curve Remix)
15. A Forest (Plati/Slick Version)

Rating: - The Cure Join The Dots B Sides and Rarities 1978-2001
Join the Dots: B-Sides & Rarities, 1978-2001

The Cure's B-Sides and Rarities will definitely be a cherished box set for die hard Cure fans. However, if you aren't familiar with Robert Smith and his quirky, lovable dramatic self, in listening to this four cd box set, you will experience a beautiful journey into the amazing multi-faceted side of Smith's brilliant psyche.

The box set comes with a four cd compilation accompanied with a colorful and beautifully designed book that reads the history of the last 20 years of music in which The Cure has created. In listening to the compilation, you will travel with the band from their early, visceral hard hitting punk inspired days, to the beautiful tapestry of love songs and introspective lyrics prolifically written by Robert Smith.

The first cd punches in with the b-side of "Killing An Arab", 10:15 Saturday Night, and makes you laugh at the fast paced Rockabilly inspired "Pill Box Tales". If you haven't heard the early Cure's dynamic punk, even at a young age, vividly executed, I highly recommend it. You will notice the influence of Bowie, Hendrix, and the pre-punk 60s juxtaposed with the clean, ethereal sound that remains a theme throughout the band's history, drawing you into the darkest period of the band's musical caravan. The b-sides of the album
"Disintegration", the climax to following albums "Faith" and "Pornography brings the somber B-side to "The Walk" which is entitled "Just One Kiss", and contrary to this, the b-side of "The Lovecats" entitled "Speak My Language which is a jazzy, light hearted number.

The 2nd cd brings you to the years of albums such as "Galore" and "Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me". The Dizzy Mix
of "Just Like Heaven" is a stripped down version of the flawless single. And Smith does three renditions of "Hello, I Love You" by The Doors. The b-side of "Just Like Heaven" is "Snow in Summer", yet another heart felt love song that, as most of these b-sides, was an intentional match for the released single.

Venturing into the greater 'poppy' years of the band's work, the third cd will give you b-sides from the album "Wish" and "Wild Mood Swing such as the beautiful love song b-side to the single "Friday I'm In Love" entitled "Halo" and "Ocean", a soft introspective love song that is the b-side to the swanky single "The 13th". In this, Smith's subtle humor is apparent, revealing that his dark side isn't the only impetus behind his music.

Cd four there is a delightful and reflective b-side to the "Ambient Mix-B-Side of Gone! and Strange Attraction" entitled "This Is A Lie" which is a favorite of mine. Fans will definitely enjoy "The Oakenfield Mix" of the melancholy "Out Of This World" which was never released. This cd also has the acoustic mix of the head nodding "Maybe Someday" which derives from the 2000 album release "Bloodflowers".

If you are a die-hard Cure fan, this will be a delightful addition to your collection, and something that will be listened to frequently as well as a beautiful coffee table display. To the ones that know Robert Smith as the goth, gloom and doom king, it will give you a fresh perspective on the complex artist and his articulately written gift of intellect and music that he brings to the table. This will definitely be a regular play list on my own ipod.

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Rating: - Nicely handled compilation
"Join the Dots" is a long overdue compilation from the post punk/goth pioneers. This isn't really a surprising set, clearly being what it claims to be, a compilation of b sides and rarities. Pretty much everything is here. Only completists will previously have everything on here, which have been available on various singles, soundtracks, or collected on various bootleg compilations.

What is remarkable about this set is the quality of the output presented here. Robert Smith's remarks in the opening of the liner notes strike a chord when he says he always hoped to hear another version of the band he was listening to at the time on the b side. If your curious how a true a statement this is, listen to several tracks on the first disc, notably the Exploding Boy or A Few Hours After This to hear the Cure in full experimental mode, fooling around with a grandiose sound listeners would become more familiar with on later recordings.

There are many moments on here that find the Cure outshining the respective albums that these bsides support. To the Sky is one of the most remarkable songs they've recorded while the Wild Mood Swings era bsides are better than anything off of that album.

This is overall a great set. Aside from a few throaway remixes, it's solid. The Cure are one of the few bands (along with the Pet Shop Boys and until recently Depeche Mode) who have put as much care into the b-sides as they would on the a-sides, really giving something extra to their fans. Fantastic set.

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Rating: - A musical gem-chest is finally unlocked...
It has been a long-held belief by many, if not most, Cure fans that Robert Smith often chooses to hide away the most beautiful of his works, striking them from the track lists of the "official" Cure albums, and placing them instead elsewhere (usually, in difficult-to-find places.)

"Join the Dots: B-sides and Rarities" fuels that belief even further, as nearly any listener could tell from the very first playing of the compilation. Essentially, this 4-disc set is Robert's way of finally unlocking the stored-away gem-chest of beloved yet elusive material, which many fans had for years been hoping would be opened.

The strongest sections of this compilation are definitely the second and third discs. Why so many of these songs were never A-sides is a mystery known only to Robert and to God.

Among the very greatest works on "Join the Dots" - which happen to also be among the very greatest Cure songs ever made - are:

Breathe
A Chain of Flowers
Snow in Summer
To the Sky
Signal to Noise
Waiting
2 Late
This Twilight Garden
Home
Halo
A Pink Dream
Fear of Ghosts

Also notable are Burn, More Than This (which is not, as some erroneously think, a Roxy Music cover), the Exploding Boy, Coming Up, and Out of Mind, among a few others.

The Dizzy Mix of Just Like Heaven also proved to be quite nice, however it would have been preferrable to include the much more scarce (and better) Extended Dizzy Mix of the song, in my opinion.

All in all, this compilation is one of the very best bets for Cure fans, along with Disintegration and Wish. It could also combine well with Greatest Hits.

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Rating: - Amazing Collection of B-Sides
From the saturnine appearance of Robert Smith it looks like he's spent the better part of his career wallowing in self pity with very little time to put out a prodigious library of music. Maybe he is depressed but he isn't lazy. His work ethic is clearly shown in this dazzling collection.

Made up of b-sides covering over 20 years Follow the Dots never disappoints. The material is strongest at the beginning but song quality never falls off precipitously. It's amazing that this is all B-side material!

I give it the highest possible rating!

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Rating: - Exhaustive.
An exhaustive overview of pretty much all b-sides and rarities by the Cure during their tenure on Fiction Records (1978-2001), "Join the Dots" is a critical collection for fans. Around five hours of rare Cure music is contained within the four CDs of the set, and while some of the material left out can be annoying (more on that in a minute), this is a superb resource for any of us who try and gather the entire output of a band.

The set runs chronologically, providing a fine overview of the band's career as much as anything else. The Cure always seemed to fill their b-sides with interesting material, from the early days (jaunty, clean tone punky "Plastic Passion") to much later (the absolutely superb "Sugar Girl"). Like many bands, in teh '90s the Cure became involved with tribute albums ("Purple Haze") and soundtracks ("Burn", "Dredd Song"). Some great performances ended up on these, "Burn" in particular from the Crow is highly regarded, and while there are bound to be some things you won't care for (for me it's the occasional 12" remix and some of the b-sides that just sound incomplete and unmemorable like "Halo"), it'll be someone else's goldmine.

The only really noticably missing stuff on here are the a-sides-- "Killing An Arab", "Charlotte Sometimes", et.al. While these have all been released in one fashion or another, it'd be nice to see all of them collected in a convenient (and remastered!) package as some of them never ended up on albums.

Per usual good boxed set standards, the entire set has been rematered-- it sounds great, crisp and clear with an opportunity to really appreciate the subtleties of the pieces, and includes extensive liner notes about each disc and a detailed discography.

I can't imagine anyone but a real diehard of the band would want this, but for those of us who fall in that category, "Join the Dots" is a great set. Recommended.